4 ms·

This is a remarkably content free article. Summary: are mmos dying? They could be, because they're repetitive and that's boring. Write better stories.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
ChuckMcM 10y ago
I think the author is feeling pain and expressing it poorly. I think that because I too grieved when WoW "died" for me (the Panda release was the last straw). I respond a bit differently in that I tend to analyze the crap out of things like affect me like that. There is a sense of place, and to some extent community, in a multiplayer game. Ones that hit the right notes in terms of complexity, variability, and struggle tend to bring their communities together. Ones that tend to be manipulative often alienate communities. I have fond memories of hanging out with a Paladin and working through the content. We had compatible schedules and ended up great friends in the game but to this day I have no idea who they were in "real life." So what I have come to understand is that a company stumbles upon a mix which like an ensemble cast of unknown actors that just "clicks" makes for a place where the content facilitates people getting to know each other, to help each other, and to compete with each other without getting too much in the way of the relationship side of things. That gets them a bunch of customers but over time you can't relive the same experiences over and over again and find them "new" any more. You really need to mix it up somehow, and randomness helps but only goes so far. When the glow starts to fade and people drift away, the owner of the place will try new things to get people involved but at the end of the day, they eventually upset the balance and even their more loyal visitors start to taper off and fade away. And for people where the first time they completed a major quest line with new friends, or overcame a raid boss, and remember that time fondly, they can't go back. Just like you can't go back to being 15 again and riding around on bikes in the neighborhood without a care in the world. Nostalgia sets in and you move on, grieving what you lost. I have played a number of MMOG's, and the RPGs are most notable because your "character" has developed in game and has a gravitas all its own. So how do you make a world where it is always fun to visit? You need a system where the world has its challenges but it isn't static. WoW avoided feeling static because it had so much content, but if you take 10 - 20 'toons' from their starting zone to the maximum character level you pretty much learn all there is to know about the place. And it doesn't change over time. And while it had a lot of variation at the beginning, over time successive updates homogenized more and more of the features such that all the classes and races began to feel like the tier 10, 11, and 12 armor sets which were exactly the same artwork but with different texture maps. I think the game that was Everquest and WoW and others in the MMORPG vein has crested, the next version of that will have to be very different in order to get the conversion rates those had. That said, once we have procedurally generated worlds rather than scripted worlds I thing you'll find they will remain engaging for a longer period of time.
- vacri 10y ago
  > the X was the last straw As someone who played WoW reasonably consistently from launch to a few months after the expansion that gave level 70, people declaring they left because X was so bad... they were there from day 1 (admittedly, early WoW was quite buggy). WoW has always had people saying "well now, THIS is the last straw!". But yes, you can only do the same thing for so long before moving on. Most courses have a far greater 'intro' level and a much narrower set of ongoing students who stick with it, for example. It's a problem MMOs have, because they're predicated on people sticking around, and content is consumed much, much faster than it can be created.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

ChuckMcM 10y ago

I think the author is feeling pain and expressing it poorly. I think that because I too grieved when WoW "died" for me (the Panda release was the last straw). I respond a bit differently in that I tend to analyze the crap out of things like affect me like that. There is a sense of place, and to some extent community, in a multiplayer game. Ones that hit the right notes in terms of complexity, variability, and struggle tend to bring their communities together. Ones that tend to be manipulative often alienate communities. I have fond memories of hanging out with a Paladin and working through the content. We had compatible schedules and ended up great friends in the game but to this day I have no idea who they were in "real life." So what I have come to understand is that a company stumbles upon a mix which like an ensemble cast of unknown actors that just "clicks" makes for a place where the content facilitates people getting to know each other, to help each other, and to compete with each other without getting too much in the way of the relationship side of things. That gets them a bunch of customers but over time you can't relive the same experiences over and over again and find them "new" any more. You really need to mix it up somehow, and randomness helps but only goes so far. When the glow starts to fade and people drift away, the owner of the place will try new things to get people involved but at the end of the day, they eventually upset the balance and even their more loyal visitors start to taper off and fade away. And for people where the first time they completed a major quest line with new friends, or overcame a raid boss, and remember that time fondly, they can't go back. Just like you can't go back to being 15 again and riding around on bikes in the neighborhood without a care in the world. Nostalgia sets in and you move on, grieving what you lost. I have played a number of MMOG's, and the RPGs are most notable because your "character" has developed in game and has a gravitas all its own. So how do you make a world where it is always fun to visit? You need a system where the world has its challenges but it isn't static. WoW avoided feeling static because it had so much content, but if you take 10 - 20 'toons' from their starting zone to the maximum character level you pretty much learn all there is to know about the place. And it doesn't change over time. And while it had a lot of variation at the beginning, over time successive updates homogenized more and more of the features such that all the classes and races began to feel like the tier 10, 11, and 12 armor sets which were exactly the same artwork but with different texture maps. I think the game that was Everquest and WoW and others in the MMORPG vein has crested, the next version of that will have to be very different in order to get the conversion rates those had. That said, once we have procedurally generated worlds rather than scripted worlds I thing you'll find they will remain engaging for a longer period of time.

vacri 10y ago
> the X was the last straw As someone who played WoW reasonably consistently from launch to a few months after the expansion that gave level 70, people declaring they left because X was so bad... they were there from day 1 (admittedly, early WoW was quite buggy). WoW has always had people saying "well now, THIS is the last straw!". But yes, you can only do the same thing for so long before moving on. Most courses have a far greater 'intro' level and a much narrower set of ongoing students who stick with it, for example. It's a problem MMOs have, because they're predicated on people sticking around, and content is consumed much, much faster than it can be created.